Reviewed by: Behind the Mask: Character and Society in Menander by Angela M. Heap Eric Dugdale Angela M. Heap. Behind the Mask: Character and Society in Menander. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. Pp. xiv, 195. $120.00. ISBN 978-1-4725-3492-7. This is a welcome study of Menander’s Epitrepontes in context. The book divides into two halves. In the first three chapters, Heap presents brief overviews of the theatrical and historical contexts in which Menander’s plays were performed. [End Page 502] Chapter 1 focuses on the terracotta masks and figurines from Lipari. Chapter 2 describes theater, audience, staging, and other aspects of performance. Chapter 3 mentions in passing contemporaries of Menander (Alexander the Great, Philemon, Demetrius of Phalerum, Theophrastus, Epicurus) and also provides a comparison of Old and New Comedy. The second half comprises two longer chapters and a conclusion. Chapter 4 examines the characterization of women in Menander’s Epitrepontes, with cursory mentions of his Samia and Perikeiromene. Chapter 5 similarly looks at the characterization of slaves in Epitrepontes, with passing nods to slave characters in Aspis, Sikyonios, and Misoumenos. Useful annotated bibliographies, arranged by subject heading, end each chapter. A concluding chapter helpfully pulls together the main strands of these last two chapters, noting the degree to which Menander presents a range of individual character portrayals that, at times, challenge stereotypes. In general, the book promises more than it delivers. Its subtitle (“Character and Society in Menander”) suggests a scope broader than the study of women and slave characters in a single play. The back cover blurb claims that the book uses the Lipari masks to examine “how the plays were originally performed,” and that it “casts fresh light . . . on the literary and historical contexts of the plays.” Neither claim is borne out. Chapter 1 provides an interesting description of the story of the discovery of the masks and figurines and notes the many unanswered questions regarding their function and concentration on Lipari. But it does not offer any analysis of what can be learned through them about Menandrean performance. Indeed, only one figurine is illustrated, but no masks, and not even a visual analysis of the figurine is provided. Similarly, cursory treatments of literary and historical contexts suitable as introductory overviews for undergraduate students are provided in chapter 3, but the author never really closes the loop by explaining how this context helps us understand Menander’s plays, and there is nothing here that amounts to “fresh light.” Chapters 4 and 5, in particular the forty or so pages discussing the characterization of women and slaves in Epitrepontes, constitute the meat of the book. In chapter 4, Heap demonstrates that Habrotonon is presented as a nuanced, sympathetic, and at times enigmatic character who behaves contrary to expectation based on type casting as a hetaira and defies the negative representation of her by Smikrines, who also mischaracterizes her as a porne. She betrays feelings at being snubbed by Chairisios; she is compassionate towards Pamphile in describing her rape, is critical of her rapist, and is affectionate towards the baby, in contrast to the reaction of Onesimos. References to Pamphile build anticipation towards her eventual entrance at the beginning of Act IV. Pamphile too defies expectations: far from being a weak and helpless young woman, she proves assertive, determined, reasoned, tactful, loyal, and courageous. Heap’s use of Norma Miller’s translation for block quotations alongside her own, at times quite different, translation in the accompanying discussion can be confusing and militate against her attempt to offer a nuanced analysis of tone. So, for example, Onesimos’ response at line 479 to Habrotonon’s important revelation that she was still a virgin at the Tauropolia is rendered “Oh yeah?” in Miller’s translation, but translated by Heap as “Oh, yes!” in her accompanying analysis (53), and then later on as an “ironical ‘yeah, right!’” (94). In chapter 5, Heap examines the characterizations of four slave characters: Daos, Syros, Onesimos, and Habrotonon. Heap demonstrates that Menander offers a wide range of characterizations. Daos is selfish and interested only in material gain, while Syros is dignified, polite, and rhetorically astute. Heap [End Page 503] convincingly argues...